Parental Reality Check
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
 I had the opportunity to interview an anonymous 16 year-old girl today for this blog. I really wanted to get to the heart of what teens are going through right now, see who or if they KNOW who they are talking to online, and share with you a new cyber law that New York just passed today. Let’s begin with my interviewee, *Kate. (not her real name)
Kate is from a city in Mississippi. She is a junior in a public high school. She is on Facebook, Myspace, and Tagged. Tagged.com is another global social site that I was not aware of until today. It is yet another version of the aforementioned social sites.
I asked Kate strait up if she was sexually active. She said she was not however she was the only one of her friends that was still a virgin. She said most of them became sexually active at 14 and 15 years-old. She said her religious views are what had kept her from crossing that line. Some of her friends also had the same belief system as she did, but that it didn’t stop them. She did say that she talks to boys often on the sites she is on, and it’s a way for her to meet new people around the area she is in.
I asked her if she had ever used these sites to sneak around, and if her parents monitored her use. She told me her mother asks her who she is talking to sometimes, but she just replies that she is talking to her friends. She sometimes lets her mother know if she is talking to a boy, but it depends on who it is. She also opened up and told me she doesn’t worry about her parents snooping around so much because she has these applications on her phone. She just gets on the sites there. She does still use her computer though. She just logs out of her accounts and email and keeps her passwords safe. (Please keep in mind that she had no idea what the interview was for with the exception of her knowing I was doing a piece on teens and social network/media sites.)
When I asked her if she regularly visited chat rooms…she had. She even had to go so far as to “de-friend” or “un-friend” (the act of taking someone off your “friend” list so they can no longer have access to your site.) someone because he was making sexual remarks and advances toward her. She said it “freaked” her out a bit. Kate has over 2000 Facebook friends, most of which she does not know, all of which can see ALL of her information. Here’s is a serious realty though when it comes to having all of these FB friends which you do not know: Just today, in New York, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that more than 3,500 registered New York state sex offenders have been purged from social networking sites Facebook and MySpace in the first database sweep since the state’s new Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (“e-STOP”) went into effect. 3500 registered sex offenders!!!! And that is only ONE state!
It is IMPERITIVE to KNOW what the conversation is about. Most sexual predators know how to lure and say just the right things. They know where your kids and teens are. They play in the same space!
We are going to talk more about the new laws coming out in later posts and will always keep you up-to-date on the newest ones. It’s not just about what your teens are up to and have going on in their life, it’s about protecting them from those who want to destroy their lives. With all of the peer pressure and sexualiztion of today's society, it's not easy for them. And it's a parental reality check for us on many different levels. Know where they are. Know what they go though. McGruff Safeguard is free. Download it today. Help us help you keep your loved ones safe. Labels: chat room, Cuomo, e-Stop Act, Facebook, interviewing, McGruff Safeguard, monitoring, myspace, Sex Offenders, Tagged
posted by Lindsay Manfredi at 7:01 PM Link to this Article
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A Worldwide Problem
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
I was thinking about something this morning. You know, this whole sexual internet predator thing is not just something we think about here in America. I think that it's sometimes easy to forget, since we live here, that this is a WORLDWIDE problem. I ran across an article by writer, Donna Rice, and wanted to share some of its content.
"Child sexual exploitation occurs in every economic, social, ethnic, and religious group. With the explosion of the Internet into a powerful, worldwide medium, the danger to children, whether they are from New York or New Zealand, has drastically increased. Pedophiles and other sexual predators can use the Internet, with no precautions, to exchange names and addresses of other pedophiles and of potential child victims. Hidden behind screen names that are pseudonyms, they gather online and swap child pornography with amazing speed and in amounts beyond our wildest imagination, which excites them to molest even more.
Offline, pedophiles typically operate in isolation. Never before have pedophiles had the opportunity to communicate so freely and directly with each other as they do online. Their communication on the Internet provides validation, or virtual validation, for their behavior. They share their conquests, real and imagined. They discuss ways to contact and lure children online and exchange tips on seduction techniques. They are using the technology of the Internet to train and encourage each other to act out sexually with children. The Internet also serves as a tool for predators to exchange tips on the avoidance of law enforcement detection.
The most common means by which sexual predators contact children over the Internet is through chat rooms, instant messages and email. In fact, 89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or instant messages and 1 in 5 youth (ages 10-17 years) has been sexually solicited online (JAMA, 2001). Considering that 25% of kids online participate in real time chat and 13 million use instant messaging, the risks of such children, either knowingly or unknowingly, interacting with a predator is alarming."
Now think about this…these numbers were from 2001, and the rate has gone up since then! We absolutely MUST teach our children and teenagers how to be safe online. Monitoring their activity is a key way to stop any potential danger that your kids can't see. McGruff Safeguard was created for that reason. We know you can't be around your kids all the time. When you can't, you can rest assured that we can. Help us help you keep your children safe online.Labels: chat room, Internet predators, online parenting
posted by Nick Carter at 10:13 AM Link to this Article
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Join the Fight
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Law enforcement officers all over the country have been stepping in and taking a stand against online predators. I ran across an article the other day that I wanted to share with you. This is how it goes down, and this is why it is so important to be aware of what is happening with our kids online.
A 12-year-old girl enters an Internet chatroom. Before long, a boy about her age strikes up a conversation. He has many of the same interests, hobbies and problems with parents she does.
He suggests they talk in an instant-messaging session rather than the chatroom. She agrees, and the two exchange more messages before the boy tells her he's really a man. "I didn't want you to think I was a dork," he types.
But the girl trusts this boy-turned-man - he understands her problems, and they like the same things - so they keep trading messages. Eventually, the man's messages turn sexual, soliciting the girl….
BUILDING THE CASE
An estimated 14 million American children have access to the Internet, and of those, one in seven will be sexually solicited online, says Justin Fitzsimmons, senior attorney for the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse. That's two million victims, many of whom are approached just like the 12-year-old girl, he said.
Only this time, the deception went both ways. The girl is actually a police investigator who has been collecting the information from the messaging sessions to lead to the arrest and conviction of the man.
Such proactive investigation techniques were one aspect of the training sessions, said Elizabeth Cooke Cooley, a senior special agent with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division who spoke at the training. Investigators were briefed on how to set up online profiles posing as young children for services, such as American Online Instant Messenger, and how to sound the part. A binder given to all session attendees even included a cheat sheet of online-speak terms such as omg (oh, my god) and ttyl (talk to you later).
"You have to make the 50-year-old man sound like a 12-year-old girl," said Detective Micah Smith of the Linn County (Ore.) Sheriff's Office.
But investigators don't seek out the predators; rather they just enter non-sexual, community chatrooms and wait for their profiles or screennames to catch the eye of a predator, Cooke Cooley said.
"You have to be innocent," she said. "You will be approached."
Click Here for the rest of article.
It all seems so innocent. At times, it can be. However, with the number of online predators on the rise, you can never be too safe. McGruff Safeguard is here to help ease your mind when you can’t be on the lookout 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Help join the fight against online predators.
Labels: chat room, Internet predators
posted by Nick Carter at 9:01 AM Link to this Article
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The Hidden Dangers of Chat Rooms
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
When I was in middle school, chat rooms were the new thing. I had never heard of them before, but many of my friends talked about them like they were the coolest thing out there. We were just starting to use AOL for instant messaging around that time, and it was the "cool" way to talk back and forth to your friends after school.
What I didn't know was that there were hundreds, if not thousands of online chat rooms that anyone could get on and talk about a certain topic. You would just go on and randomly find interesting things, or places that your friends would be on. These weren't private rooms, anyone could join the conversation. It wasn't long before group chats turned into private instant messages from someone I didn't know in the group.
But, at the ripe old age of 14, I found out quickly how dangerous the Internet can be. Most of the people wanting to "instant message" with me, taking the conversation into a one-on-one setting, were not looking to just be friends. Inevitably, it turned sexual in nature within a few minutes. They would ask questions about what you look like, what you were into...etc. For someone who is in middle school it is hard to understand what these people were doing.
An increasing number of children are in danger of being targeted by pedophiles through chat rooms such as this, and newer venues like Social Media and even online gaming. It is a huge concern for parents with young children. Sexual predators, cyber bullies, and scammers all lurk on these sites. For young kids who are getting on the internet more and more, the chances of coming across a public chat is almost unavoidable. Some teenagers are naive to the dangers that are awaiting them in these chat rooms. They believe they are talking and interacting with other people their age. Pedophiles often lie about their age and even their motives. They want to make your child feel comfortable and even think of them as friends before beginning to see how receptive they are.
As parents we may feel overwhelmed, as if we cannot keep up with the trending technology that our children seem so skilled in. But parents can indeed be aware of the threats online and take some action to know what their children are doing online. McGruff SafeGuard simply monitors your child's conversations, allows you to see who they've been talking with, and even alerts you if the conversation turns sexual, illegal, or otherwise dangerous. Shouldn't you be informed?Labels: chat room, Internet predators, McGruff Safeguard, social media
posted by Nick Carter at 9:02 AM Link to this Article
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Recognizing Taney County's Battle Against Online Predators
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
I know the past couple of weeks, we have been discussing ways to monitor and protect our children’s online activities. There may be some parents out there freaked out about their kids being online. It can be easy to do. However, it’s important to keep in mind, that even though the internet can be used to lure the innocent unsuspecting, it is also being used to lure the predator.
This is exactly what the Taney County Sheriff’s Department in Missouri, did last week.
Michael Sean Pruiett, 37, of Ava, was charged in an Internet crime sting, after allegedly exposing himself on a webcam in the belief that the person on the other end was a young girl. This man was found in an internet chat room.
"Welch's sole purpose is to chat everyday with possible predators, in web
chat rooms, finding the best ways to act like a teen or child.She must be very
careful not to entice them. Laws require that the predator must be the
one to initiate inappropriate conduct.
Welch says as soon as she logs on she is approached by so many people she
has to start ignoring them. And many, she says, are from the Ozarks.
Russell says having a deputy dedicated to this type of crime is vital to public
safety."
These are the type of people that sooner or later are very apt to progress
on and go into rapes and other acts with children," Russell says.
Russell says parents may be surprised to see what is going on with children
online, and there are people living in southwest Missouri who expose themselves
to kids and try to lure them into face to face meetings."
I want to look at this twofold. Even though the internet is often used for bad, it is also being used to catch the bad. And it’s also great to know that there are folks out there dedicated to protecting our children from someplace other than our own home. If you are a law enforcement officer and are with us in our effort to keep children safe online, please join our Facebook group, Law Enforcement For Protecting Children Online.
Labels: chat room, children safety, Facebook group, Internet predators, internet safety, Taney County Sheriff's Department
posted by Lindsay Manfredi at 5:20 PM Link to this Article
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What's A Chat Room Anyway?
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
What is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear of this thing called a “ chat room?” For me, (I’m a visual person) I picture this invisible room of random strangers chatting away. Almost like some secret society. For some, it is a place to meet friends. Others may see it as a place to escape from real life if they aren’t happy with where they are. Some may be seeking like minds to share ideas and thoughts in a state of anonymity. And others use it as a platform to prey on the weak at heart, the insecure, and the young. There are vast differences for ‘reasons’ why someone may want to join a chat room. For those of you who have never been ‘in’ a virtual chat room, it may look something like the photo above. (Please click on picture for larger view.)
Usually, there is a box on the right of the screen which displays all the usernames of the people in the chat room. Some use their real name, others use a ‘screen name,’ and some use a fake name. However, unless you actually know the person in real life, you never truly know who you are talking to. That is why it is easy to use chat rooms for sting operations.
Internet predators can disguise themselves as anyone. It is for this reason McGruff Safeguard was created. So we can be informed on what is actually going on in the chat rooms our kids are entering. When I say “see what is going on,” I mean, McGruff Safeguard monitors and sends you conversations word for word. This is not to get them in trouble. It is to help you be INFORMED on what is going on in order to adjust your parenting strategies.
We care too much for our loved ones to let them get ‘snowed’ by some internet predator lingering in the shadow of a chat room. McGruff is here to help you keep your loved ones safe. Labels: chat room, internet safety, monitoring, online parenting, predators
posted by Lindsay Manfredi at 11:31 AM Link to this Article
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